xml-dev - RE: ubiquitous XML?

[Ed Staub <estaub@kana.com>]

Simon St.Laurent wrote:
> As time has passed, I've had less and less hope for this vision.  Not
> because of the familiar claim that 'data modeling is hard', 
> but because the
> supporting standards for XML seem intent on growing more 
> complex and more
> obscure simultaneously.  

Agreed.  The prime example for me has been the XML Schema Structure document
(http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-1/).  The simplest of questions can take
hours to try to divine, and even then I'm often unsure that I understand.  I
think that the root problem may be that the spec is strictly descriptive,
with no examples and little motivation ("What is this piece of the spec
FOR?").  It's clear that readability has not been a priority for the
editors.

The Primer (http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-0/) helps, but its content is
limited by design.

I think that the opacity of the specification will drastically slow adoption
of XML Schema.  One early indicator is the relative scarcity of technical
tutorial articles in the trade press.

-Ed Staub